Tony Awards

Returning to Broadway after a brief hiatus to accommodate a creative overhaul, the musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” earned $809,941 for five preview performances last week before mostly full audiences at the Foxwoods Theater, according to the weekly box office data released on Monday by the Broadway League.

“Spider-Man” played for five performances rather than the standard eight because it began running last Thursday night, forgoing Tuesday and Wednesday shows to provide additional time for rehearsals. Before it suspended preview performances in April for three and a half weeks, “Spider-Man” was regularly earning between $1.3 million and $1.5 million a week at the Foxwoods, Broadway’s largest house with 1,930 seats. The $70 million musical, the most expensive in history, now has some additional performance numbers and flying sequences and a revamped plot focusing on young love and familiar characters from the comic books and movies. “Spider-Man” is scheduled to open on June 14.
Meanwhile, the musical “Wicked” reclaimed the No. 1 ranking in Broadway’s weekly grosses from “The Lion King.” “Wicked” grossed $1.607 million for eight performances last week, while “The Lion King” earned $1.562 million. The musicals have toggled between the top two spots in recent weeks, with both selling a mix of premium and regular-priced tickets.

The new, critically acclaimed musical “The Book of Mormon” was the third highest-grossing show last week, earning $1.13 million. “Jersey Boys” rounded out Broadway’s million-dollar club with $1.061 million.

Two other musicals fell just short of the million-dollar mark after improving over their previous week’s grosses: The revival of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” and the show “Priscilla Queen of the Desert.”

The top-grossing play last week was Lincoln Center Theater’s “War Horse,” earning $836,768.

On the other end of the spectrum was “Lombardi,” the longest-running new play of the 2010-11 season, which was the low earner last week with $210,651. (The drama, which opened in October, is scheduled to close on Sunday.) Also faring poorly at the box office — earning less than one-third of their maximum possible gross — were the Broadway revivals of “Arcadia” and “Born Yesterday” and the musicals “Million Dollar Quartet,” “People in the Picture,” and “Wonderland,” which closed Sunday after two months of preview and regular performances.

Overall, Broadway musicals and plays brought in just over $23 million last week, compared to $22.1 million the week before and $22.5 million for the comparable week during the 2009-10 season.